Thursday, January 25, 2018

New Poems By James Diaz

James Diaz is founding editor of the literary arts & music journal Anti-Heroin Chic. His work has appeared most recently in Psaltery & Lyre, The Ekphrastic Review, Quail Bell Magazine and Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, (for which his poem, The Balance Between Us, was nominated for the Best of the Net.) He is the author of This Someone I Call Stranger (Indolent Books, 2018) and three full length collaborative manuscripts with poet Elisabeth Horan. He currently resides in upstate New York.Bailiff Took The HandlemuteatthemallI was face and palmthose memory bonesrattlin' shit from 97benson bender burnerbroke a smilewent dead insidecoil was a pop loadshimmer summer lakestank my boyhood all tornadoapple shadebeholdento the oldenI am goldenlike the fail safeat the back of my throatno mother can ever beat me that hard againas bad as spoon and dropperwindow shopperin my Gettysburg dt'smy pliant cross dressingwounds of my fatherand my, how you've growninto your diseaseour money was on dead at 16we think you owe usfor our bad bet,now pay up.###

Poet James Diaz

Tara Reid is throwing verse like a rainbow goddess whippoorwill, got so many milesunder your nailsrave / Nancy bleeder the bleachers /\ all some of us hadI was mop and bucketmissed year book photocuz, you kn ow - jail and whatnotI had a gunit was my faultlinegone apocalytpictara reid dreamsin the Kojak day time loungethroazinegot a lifeit didn't fitfired the tailorand wore a paper bagbodybrokenjailernight rounds disco <> baby I waswhat the neighborhhood made mestitchesand smelly socksand copsoutsideI took two years offso I could suicidesally + every door I ever openedwas smoke and iodine plaster kickbedtime boy - every place I goI bring all these expired hellswith me.###Glimmer Poem #1dropped the element offon its side amblingwas sleep I couldn't touchall dressed uplike yesterday was warand today was peacebut I didn't have the scarsto negotiate / nights alongthe water way rushing outmy skin a holiday inblur / not lines but bodiesgiggling sweat stainedand aftershave bridge & tunnel men with their eyes burned out likestars in cementwe claimed these handstook up in clouds by a god we never believed in enough to die for but somehow stillfeared.###Glimmer Poem #2I won't bore you on this long drive into nowhereyour father's voice ringing our underneath the tiresstate lines signal lives become trapped in territoryit's still the old west no matter how many computerchips they put in us, gun slinging, tavern singingwoman stealing, ruined yards / slumped bodieson porches with no lights on, who ever said there wasno sense of humor in looming disaster never got turned on just by saying the word atom bombthermonuclear fishing hole books by dead menabout dead woman who reminded them of their dead mothers / tomes filled with incestual metaphorold western sky tapered into blue hillseating up the residual / tech chip dug intoskin feel the cold coke machine of 2 a.m.drugged out blue jean alley / a thing is only sacreduntil you touch it, andthe night is no longer young, it is burning.###Glimmer Poem #3catching miracle glimmersin the good heartwith the shine of tomorrowclearing off day breakbodies spun from cobwebfind their love in cornershow sweet it is deep under wireoh wood burningcv camerasx-ray boyslisten to lighting bugshit the street lampwith pocket book prayersmiddle aged man with the keysin his pocketsdon't you knowwe have nothing to fear herewhen we sleep we are goldenagainst the mop bucketsand morning call for sloptrays made by unloved whippoorwillsin the dragging there is a whiff of shadowwe bend to the name you do not callwe come running gunning for the dooryou leave unlatchedjust once, sometimes even the taseris a blessing.###Glimmer Poem #4If I weren't me, but onlythis season passing itsloss over my body like the buck lost on train rides home when there reallyis no place to call homeanymore, and the stainsalong the leather seatlike the face of godlaughing / a bar roomis a place where everythingthat went wrong takesa load off, the coldheavy wind outsidewaiting to pouncemake tender out of hard -smooth me jagged, versesheld tight against skin worn looselysteer clear the brambleboys / the night lightshedding lines undertowns we never leftall this painand none of it useful.###Addendum for the radiating distance between here and homeI wanted to be girly with skin that wouldn't show scars that wouldn't push shit around / people I can't stand / like stereo freaky glow kids with parties to throw / tomorrows, oh you know nico notch in the belt saffron fleshy pearl hidden rooftop romantics / kohl / bat an eye / I'd be shy with you / in public / photon op, has to hurt when / you slide in / I'm all bible and bone / neon is hell's sharpest arrow / hide my bratty bra / verbal vanguard / worst thing about living is the people you have to live with / the shadows of yourself, on cue / on the wall / baby, I am a girl when I think how unmanly holding my self together has become, eye shadow, lip liner - due north / festive sad travel / I need the cure / is it on you? I need it bad / to be someone else for a while.